November 12, 2012
The $1.2 billion solar power project that was to be built near Chinchilla has been officially scrapped.
In a statement on its website, the Solar Dawn Consortium has confirmed that “although it remains committed to Australia’s large-scale concentrated solar power industry, it will no longer be pursuing development of its proposed 250MW solar thermal power facility”.
Earlier this year, the Queensland Government withdrew $75 million funding from the project, although at the time the proponents played down fears this could derail the scheme.
The proposal was to build a field of mirrors 20km south-east of Chinchilla to power a 250MW power station.
Once completed, the project would have been one of the largest of its kind in the world.
It would have covered about 450ha including the “solar field” containing the mirrors and steam boiler tubes, and a “power block” which would have housed the steam turbine generators.
Solar Dawn had expected an average of 300 jobs to be created each year during the three-year construction phase (2012–2015), peaking at 450 jobs.
A further 30 permanent jobs would have been created during the 25-year operation and maintenance phase of the plant.
The Federal Government was to contribute $464 million towards the project, which was also going to run in conjunction with a $60m research program at the University of Queensland.
